Friendship in Christian Science

                                       I've known a few loving

                                       Individuals in my day,

                                       But this man tops the list --

                                       A blessing to all

                                       Who are able to say,

                                       "He's my friend."

                                       What brings him through

                                       A life no less challenging

                                       At times than for you and me?

                                       I think it must surely be

                                       Living to encourage and help others,

                                       Living the love Christ Jesus

                                       Lived and taught.



                                      How much my husband and I

                                      Appreciate our dear Georgia friend.

Power Awesome and Immediate

        Just have to share with you something that happened to me last evening when I was reading in the New Testament, in Matthew.  One of Jesus' commands lit up for me as something I needed to pay special attention to.  And do.  Merely reading the words, then going about my business as usual, was no longer going to work, I could see.

        The relevance of this particular command and the way it applied to me kept coming to thought, and I found myself yearning to be aligned with it, to be fully obedient.  And God certainly heard my heartfelt prayer.  I asked Him for the spiritual strength to put our Master's words into practice, and viola!  The fall-out from this was so quick I was amazed. 

        And take it from me who just experienced something wonderful and hard to adequately describe, get yourself right with something Jesus said we are to do and you will see in your life power both awesome and immediate.

Healing the Way Jesus Healed

        In thinking about what it takes to truly be committed to Christ Jesus, it is clear to me that one must employ his divine method of healing.  Nor can we be obedient to his comand to "Heal the sick" in any other way.

        Mary Baker Eddy points out in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, "Jesus never asked if disease were acute or chronic, and he never recommended attention to laws of health, never gave drugs, never prayed to know if God were willing that a man should live.  He understood man, whose Life is God, to  be immortal, and knew that man has not two lives, one to be destroyed and the other to be made indestructible.

      Christ's followers have not only the duty, but the privilege of proving God's healing power, even as our Master did.  And many are proving it, through clear-cut healings for themselves and others.

        It may be helpful to the newcomer to Christian Science to learn that this religion doesn't create health; it reveals it.  Proceeding from the concept of the divine Principle of creation found in the first chapter of the Bible, namely, that "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good," Christian Science maintains that God's universe, including man, is now perfect, complete.  Our need is to realize this glorious fact. 

        Anything unlike God, good, is a false belief that would seem to temporarily obscure ever-present spiritual perfection.  But any erroneous condition that confronts us is corrected when its nothingness is spiritually discerned and demonstrated.

        For a thorough understanding of how Christ Jesus healed, and the spiritual truths that will give any earnest seeker for God's help practical means of obtaining it, the book mentioned above is the way to go.  A world of spiritual enlightenment and healing awaits you.  And me.

Committed to Christ Jesus

                                     Loving Christ Jesus as I do,

                                     Can't help wanting for Him

                                     What His Father wants --

                                     Honor, obedience, love.



                                     Do you want this

                                     For Christ Jesus too?

Planting Pansies and Praising God

        Just now, while putting in colorful pansies for fall color, and beauty into the spring, couldn't help thinking about a wonderful promise from the Bible I ran across recently in one of the Bible Lessons that serious students of Christian Science read/study/put into practice daily.

        I offer this to you, for comfort and an equal light upon your path today!

        "For the Lord your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you."  (Deuteronomy 20:4)

        And as I have discovered over many years, the enemies referred to here cover the entire ground of mortal ills--sickness, lack, worry, inharmony--you name it.

"who did hinder you...?"

                                             John Robert Howell



        A lump of coal in the sock of supplication instead of spiritual blessing?  A rivulet of sincere and hope-filled prayers which peters out ineffectually on mortal mind's dry alluvial plain?  If so, it is easy to become discouraged, or at least begin puttering about dispiritedly, while letting aggressive mental suggestions, instead of God, sit in the catbird seat.

        I have wondered more than once, regrettably not to my bitter enough chagrin, why I have even once thought I could scale the heights of heaven with less time spent in prayer than Christ Jesus or Mary Baker Eddy.  When error's skirmish line of adversity is advancing on one's lethargically defended position is not the time to chase one's tail in a tizzy, wondering how to get the pin out of his Scientific grenade.  If we are always as obedient to God as we know how, we are increasingly semper fidelis and semper paratus--and thus under His loving protection.

        Prayer, watching and working are always, Mrs. Eddy tells us, required for growth in grace, and the onset of error's floodtide is not the time to dust off the life-boat kit and begin reading the instructions for assembly.  Christ Jesus and Mrs. Eddy both are very clear on the necessity for and how of spiritual progress.  The Bible and the writings of Mrs. Eddy will not keep the false claims of mortal mind at bay if they are only used as impromptu scotches at the bottom of our mental doors.  But thank God, with all the  help we get in the inspired Word and the teachings of divine Science, it's good to know we have more than enough metaphysical tools to do what He requires of us.
    

Cathedral of the Trees

                    I've had my share

                    Of inspired, holy moments,

                    Worshiping in a church

                     Made of wood and stone.



                     But I do believe,

                     On a bench on the edge

                     Of a still and lovely forest,

                     I am quite near the divine.

                     I sit here uplifted, all alone --

                     (Except for the One

                     Who made all this,

                     Of course.)